Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide

PC, Steam

The campaign for Vermintide, a four-player cooperative melee game set in the Warhammer fantasy universe, began with a series of territory exclusive PC games print front cover and preview reveals, including features in PC Gamer (USA, UK and Sweden), Canard PC (France), Gamereactor (Nordic), PC Gameplay (Belgium), PC Powerplay (Australia) and PC Games (Germany). Plan of Attack managed a regular rollout of video assets, developer interviews and feature stories to build buzz throughout the duration of the campaign.

After a series of behind closed door conference demos (E3, GDC, PAX, Gamescom, EGX and Twitchcon) where we booked meetings with 500+ journalists and video streamers, the Vermintide closed beta kicked off with over 1000 press and video streamers going hands on with previews and streams to turn Vermintide into one of the most anticipated PC releases of 2015. In addition PC Gamer awarded Vermintide PAX ‘Game of the Show’ and EGX visitors voting it #2 Indie Game of the Show, becoming one of the most popular games on Steam.

Campaign Timeline

The campaign began with magazine covers and preview articles in major publications in February 2015.

This was followed by the full announcement distributed to traditional press with an accompanying CGI trailer that outlined the grim fantasy world the studio was creating. News stories were secured across many of the top-tier publications including IGN, Destructoid, Gamespot, PC Gamer, Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun PCGamesN, 4 Players, and Gamestar.

A number of previews and interviews were scheduled with many leading outlets including Game Informer, PC Gamer, Destructoid, Gamereactor and Gametrailers (RIP) with February’s campaign finishing with the news that Jesper Kyd would be scoring the Vermintide’s soundtrack.

At the beginning of March a sneak-peek gameplay trailer was revealed further galvanizing the game’s position amongst press and players alike with the news posted across the major outlets of Europe and the USA: PC Gamer, VG247, PCGamesN, 3D Juegos, Igromania and GRY Online.

Between March and the E3 of June 2015 four new characters were revealed—Witch Hunter, Waywatcher, Empire Soldier and the Dwarf Ranger—each with their own accompanying media blast and artwork. Vermintide’s E3 trailer was released on the 16th June securing 124 news stories in total. Notable highlights include: Giant Bomb, Gamespot, IGN, Rock Paper Shotgun, Vandal, Multiplayer, Gamekult.

Following E3 a further character was announced—Bright Wizard—before two in-depth video developer diaries were released in July 2015—Inside Vermintide Part 1: PC Gamer, IGN, Destructoid—Inside Vermintide Part 2: Playground, Spazio Games, Jeuxvideo. In August 2015, Vermintide was shown to press at Gamescom, securing a number of news stories and previews as a result including coverage from 4 Players, Everyeye, PC Games, Jeuxvideo.

Vermintide was at EGX in September 2015, Eurogamer going hands on with the game at the show while IGN hosted its first 15 minute. This was followed a release date announcement reported on by 146 games media sites. Trailers followed for each of the four characters available in the game in the run up to the game’s release in October 2015.

Plan of Attack executed a huge review campaign securing reviews from every major outlet in games media helping the game secure 79% on Metacritic with notable reviews secured at PC Gamer, The Escapist, Gamestar, 4Players, Multiplayer, 3D Juegos, IGN and Kill Screen.